The present invention relates to a method and an apparatus for cleaning an internal water line of a household appliance, in particular of a refrigerating device.
Refrigerating devices with an integrated ice-maker and/or cold water dispenser are enjoying increasing popularity. Refrigerating devices of this type usually have an internal water line which is connected to a mains water supply network in order to be able to immediately refill an integrated storage container of the cold water dispenser or a molded tray of the ice maker after each withdrawal, so that sufficient cold water or ice is available at any time. The water outlet points of the water dispenser and/or the ice maker are usually not provided with a hermetically closing stop valve, thereby rendering it possible for germs to spread from these water outlet points into the storage container and/or the internal water line of the device. It is therefore desirable to clean this internal water line from time to time. Such cleaning must usually be carried out by the service department of the refrigerating device manufacturer and is therefore both complicated for a user to organize and costly.